CME Insider's Blog Posts

The PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center serves the local community of Ketchikan, AK as well as the many tourists and visitors to the remote island of Revillagigedo in Southern Alaska. To meet growing demand, the city agreed to fund a $62 million project to add a new wing and improve treatment facilities. This entailed adding 70,000 square feet of space and installing over 2,000 items of new medical equipment. Despite a four-week construction delay, healthcare facility logistics specialists at CME were able to condense their installation schedule and ensure the hospital opened on time in June 2016.

Over the past few years, medical facilities have moved towards making equipment purchasing decisions based on a value-based system. This means that the top criteria for purchasing new equipment are quality of care, best outcomes and improved patient satisfaction for the lowest total cost of ownership.

Along with these new criteria, space has also become a premium. Now, practically every medical facility is trying to improve patient flow within the small spaces they are working in.

Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been around for more than 25 years, only a small number of medical facilities are in full ADA compliance.

Here are three reasons why you should keep ADA Compliance in mind when purchasing medical equipment:

• Reduce the Risk of ADA Lawsuits
• Improve Safety for Patients and Staff
• Improve Patients Outcomes

A new or remodeled healthcare facility is a fantastic way to improve the patient experience. However, unexpected challenges often arise when expanding, remodeling or building a new facility. Many times, the unexpected challenges are related to buying new equipment to outfit the new space. Be aware of these common pain points so you can plan ahead.

Bringing technology to the point-of-care via wall mounts and carts has revolutionized the art of caregiving. However, a flawed application of technology workstations can negatively impact the perceived care provided.

Hospitals that took the time to fully understand the workflow within their healthcare setting, surveyed the environment, and implemented technology as a part of the caregiving conversation saw patient satisfaction scores rise by 12%.*

Healthcare organizations often incur fierce competition between different departments for the scarce dollars allocated towards capital equipment purchases. When called upon to justify the cost-effectiveness of specific product purchases to upper administration, the department manager/administrator must understand the difference between total cost of ownership versus purchase price.

Healthcare equipment planning is a vital part of any successful healthcare facility construction project, and also one of the most challenging tasks. Medical equipment purchasing mistakes can quickly skyrocket, causing budgetary overruns as well as delivery delays. Avoid these costly errors with key project management support in the following areas:

Purchasing medical equipment for your newly constructed, expanded or remodeled off-site medical facility is not an easy task.  Off-site is different from reordering standard medical supplies, and requires additional research, order processing, tracking of shipments, receipt of products, end-use site delivery, and staging.

Being a complex task, it has several pain points that may include ordering errors, delivery challenges, damaged equipment, receiving, and opening delays.  At CME, we help customers to avoid these pain points when making purchases.

Procuring all the different equipment items required to outfit a new construction, expansion, or remodeling project can be a daunting and stressful task.  That is why using an experienced equipment-focused distributor is essential for opening your new medical office on-time and in a cost-efficient manner.